Jiah Khan's suicide case: Actor Suraj Pancholi gets bail

July 1, 2013

Suraj_PancholiMumbai, Jul 1: The Bombay high court on Monday granted bail to Suraj Pancholi, son of actor Aditya Pancholi, while observing that he cannot be held solely responsible for the "impulsive" act of suicide committed by actress Jiah Khan.

"No doubt that it was an unfortunate incident that a young girl has committed suicide. She (Jiah) must have been impulsive and he (Suraj) cannot be held solely responsible for it," Justice Sadhna Jadhav said.

Suraj, 22, arrested on June 10, has been granted bail on a surety of Rs 50,000. The court has directed him to surrender his passport and appear before the Juhu police every alternate day.

The court also observed that the letter, purportedly written by Jiah and recovered from her house, could not be taken as a suicide note as it is not addressed to anyone and is not dated.

"The question is if the script recovered from the deceased's house is addressed to the applicant (Suraj) or is it just extracts from her diary? Whether it can be called suicide note at all? When there is no date on it can it be linked to the day she committed suicide? " the court queried.

It added that the letter written by Jiah never reached the applicant.

"Therefore it cannot be said that the emotions expressed in the letter ever reached the applicant," Justice Jadhav said.

The court also held that Suraj never nurtured an intent or "mens rea" (motive) to push the girl to commit suicide.

"She was in the relationship on her own volition. It all depends on the pscyhe of the person. It cannot be ignored that Jiah had suicidal tendencies. Earlier also she had attempted suicide and it was the applicant who took care of her," Justice Jadhav said, adding that the deceased's mother was not even aware of this incident.

The court further said that it was clear that the deceased was extremely possessive of the applicant, who was focusing on his career and hence could not give much time to Jiah.

"It also appears that on the day of the incident there was some misunderstanding between the deceased and applicant due to which Jiah was in a rage of fury," the court said.

Observing that a 22-year-old boy has been in jail for 21 days and that there was no need for further incarceration, the court granted bail to Suraj.

He had moved the high court on June 26 seeking bail in the case, after a sessions court had earlier rejected his bail plea, saying that prima facie Jiah had been mentally abused by Suraj.

He was arrested on the basis of a letter, purportedly written by Jiah, which was found by her mother Rabiyah Khan and her sister from Jiah's bedroom a few days after she hung herself from the ceiling fan on June 3.

In the letter, Jiah mentioned how she was mentally harassed by Suraj and how she had undergone an abortion.

Suraj, lodged in Arthur Road prison in central Mumbai, had said in his bail plea that he and Jiah were in a consensual relationship and the letter was being misused by Rabiyah.

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News Network
May 12,2020

Mumbai, May 12: Superstar Salman Khan on Tuesday released his latest romantic single "Tere Bina" featuring Jacqueline Fernandez while in quarantine at his Panvel farm house.

The actor, along with close family and friends from the industry, including Iulia Vantur, Waluscha De Sousa, is living in the farm house. This is the second song Salman has released amid the coronavirus pandemic, after "Pyaar Karona."

"About seven weeks ago, when we came to the farm, we didn't know we will be here under a lockdown. So we wanted to do things to keep ourselves busy. That's when we decided to do these songs. We launched 'Pyaar Karona' and now, we are launching 'Tere Bina'," Salman said in a statement.

The song, sung and directed by Salman, is composed by his friend Ajay Bhatia and written by Shab bir Ahmed.

The actor said he had the song "Tere Bina" with him for quite a while but because it wasn't fitting into any of his film, he decided to release it now.

Jacqueline said she didn't think they would be able to shoot the song, which they finished in four days of evening shoots, with such limitations.

"We are used to shooting songs on a large stage with grand production costs. There are costumes, hair, make up. All of a sudden, we find ourselves with a team of three people. For the first time, I was checking lighting and moving props around. It was a great experience and it taught us how to make the most of what we have," she said.

Salman recently sent out food packets and ration from his farm house to those affected by the lockdown.

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News Network
June 20,2020

New Delhi, Jun 20: Taking cues from her own experience, actor Deepika Padukone on Saturday emphasised that people suffering from depression cannot 'snap out' of the mental health condition.

Continuing with her daily practice of posting mental health messages for people struggling with depression and other issues, Padukone posted the recent message on social media.

"Repeat after me: You cannot 'snap out' of depression," Padukone wrote on Twitter.

Padukone had started with the series of mental health quotes after the sudden demise of actor Sushant Singh Rajput, who committed suicide by hanging himself at his Bandra residence in Mumbai.

The 'Tamasha' actor started voicing her opinion on the importance of mental health through her foundation 'The Live Love Laugh Foundation' (TLLLF) in June 2015. Through the platform, the actor keeps launching nationwide awareness as well as destigmatisation campaigns.

Meanwhile, scores of comments followed on her latest post on mental health, where netizens too shared their take on mental health.

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News Network
February 12,2020

London, Feb 12: Oscar-winning British director Steve McQueen is returning to his art roots with a series of short films at London's Tate Modern art gallery, offering a sensory exploration of black identity.

McQueen, who became the first black director to win the best picture Academy Award in 2014 for "12 Years a Slave", is now based between London and Amsterdam and is focused on championing diversity in the film industry.

Visitors to his new exhibition will be greeted by "Static", a film of New York's Statue of Liberty, scrutinising the iconic symbol from every possible angle at very close range against a deafening backdrop of the helicopter from where the footage was filmed.

"What interests Steve is our view of the world, how humans are trying to represent Liberty," said Fiontan Moran, assistant curator of the exhibition.

"7th Nov, 2001" features a still shot of a body while McQueen's cousin Marcus tells of how he accidentally killed his brother, a particularly traumatic experience for the artist.

"Western Deep" is another visceral work, giving a sense through sights and sounds in an interactive installation of the experiences of miners in South Africa, following them to the bottom of the mine.

"Ashes", meanwhile, is a tribute to a young fisherman from Grenada, the island where McQueen's family originated.

The images of beauty and sweetness filmed from his boat are tragically reversed on the other side of the projection screen, which shows a grave commissioned by McQueen for the eponymous young fisherman, who was killed by drug traffickers.

African-American singer, actor and civil rights activist Paul Robeson (1898-1976) is honoured in "End Credits".

The film shows censored FBI documents detailing the agency's surveillance of Robeson, read by a voice-over artist, for five hours.

"He is... testing the limits of how people can be documented in an era of mass surveillance," said Moran.

In a similarly militant vein, the exhibition features the sculpture "Weight", which was first shown in the prison cell where the writer and playwright Oscar Wilde was imprisoned.

It depicts a golden mosquito net draped over a metal prison bed frame, addressing the theme of confinement and the power of the imagination to break free.

The show runs alongside an exhibition of McQueen's giant portraits of London school classes, many of which appeared on the streets of London last year.

"I remember my first school trip to Tate when I was an impressionable eight-year-old, which was really the moment I gained an understanding that anything is possible," said McQueen, adding it was "where in some ways my journey as an artist first began".

He recently told the Financial Times newspaper the difference between his art films and his feature films was that the former were poetry, the latter like a novel.

"Poetry is condensed, precise, fragmented," he said. "The novel is the yarn".

The exhibition opens on February 13 and runs until May 11.

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